Kolkata, Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said drainage work along the EM Bypass, compensating farmers for taking over a piece of land to build waste processing facilities at Dhapa and repairing valves for the water supply network – several civic projects that were delayed or slowed down in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections – will now begin in full swing.
The campaign for the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections saw political parties, especially the Trinamool Congress, talk about civic services in their campaigns.
Councillors of the ruling party were asked to conduct door-to-door campaigns and ask people if they had any problems with the water supply and drainage network or whether they were receiving instalments of welfare schemes like Laxmi Bhandar or old-age pension on time.
Several stretches of the EM Bypass remained inundated for several hours following the rains in May.
KMC engineers had then said that potholes along the EM Bypass and its service road were clogged due to lack of cleaning.
A senior official told The Telegraph on Saturday that EM Bypass lacks a proper drainage network and several existing sewer lines need cleaning. “Some sewer lines are across the road and have to be cleaned. Police permission will be needed to close parts of EM Bypass. The police had refused permission during the elections. This has delayed the work,” the official said. Mayor Firhad Hakim, who was responding to complaints of waterlogging by a resident during the weekly phone-in programme Talk to Mayor, said the KMC would approach the police again for permission. “The police did not grant permission during the elections citing VIP movement. We will approach them again,” he said. The stretches that were waterlogged include the service lane near Ruby Hospital, the Ruby-bound portion of EM Bypass opposite Silver Spring and the portion opposite Captain Bheri. Another project that got slowed down was the construction of the Kalighat skywalk. “We did not have the full strength of workers during the election. Since it was a seven-phase election, someone or the other was not at work and went home to vote. This slowed down the pace of the project,” the official said.
Similar to the skywalk at Dakshineswar, the 430-metre-long skywalk between SP Mukherjee Road-Kali Mandir Road crossing and Kalighat temple missed its first deadline in April 2023. The second deadline of December 2023 was also missed.
“We had set another deadline of June 2024, which we will miss too,” the senior official said. A new deadline will be decided soon.”
The elections also put on hold the payment of compensation to farmers in Dhapa.
The KMC is taking back around 180 acres of land in Dhapa that is owned by the civic body. Over 820 farmers had been tilling the land for decades and the civic body decided to compensate them at the rate of Rs 50,000 per katta.
“We prepared a proposal to pay the compensation and sent it to the state government. The approval was put on hold after the announcement of the elections,” the senior official said.
KMC sources said taking a decision on payment of compensation could be considered a violation of the model code of conduct. “We hope the government will approve it soon,” the official said.
The civic body plans to set up three plants on the plot to process solid waste and make electricity, compost and fuel from it.
The city generates around 4,000 tonnes of solid waste every day, but only 525 tonnes are processed.
